Millennium Development Goals

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Target 5: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

Child Mortality

every year more than 10 million children die of preventable diseases - 30,000 per day. More than 500,000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth with women in Africa, almost 100 times more likely to die than those in richer countries

in sub-Saharan Africa, child mortality rates are running average 172 deaths per 1,000 compared with 9 per 1,000 in developed regions

the major causes of deaths of under 5's in sub-Saharan Africa include malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and AIDS

there are more than 600,000 new cases of HIV in children each year and most cases the infection is passed to them from their mother

Key obstacles:

diseases such as HIV/AIDS

economic decline, conflict, inequality and persistent poverty

under-resourced health services

lack of progress in reducing the numbers of deaths of newborn babies. Most die from preventable causes such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, measles, AIDS, and other illnesses